The most unbelievable thing of 2024 has emerged: the Meme sector, which has always been driven by conceptual hype, has started to deliver real value and play a practical role. This has left traditional cryptocurrencies, which have struggled to find meaningful value, in a difficult position.
It all begins in the academic world. In traditional academia, the business of scientific papers has long been monopolized by a few major literature platforms. Issues such as difficulty in publishing, high download costs, and authors’ rights not being properly enforced (often with no tangible benefits for the authors) have been persistent problems.
While websites like Sci-Hub have attempted to offer free access to research papers, they’ve faced significant resistance. Those interested can explore this issue further on their own.
But now, all of this might change due to memes. Both CZ and Vitalik Buterin participated in Desci events, which directly sparked the growth of the decentralized science (Desci) movement. The core idea of this field is to reshape the research ecosystem through decentralized mechanisms, and Memecoins’ innovative characteristics offer a fresh perspective, breaking through many of the traditional bottlenecks in scientific research.
Desci (Decentralized Science) advocates for empowering scientific research with blockchain technology, aiming to break down the existing walls of the academic world. Memecoins, as the “light side” of the blockchain world, do not focus on mainstream financial interests but shine through their community-driven, easily spreadable, and low-barrier features. This “fun” characteristic enables Memecoins to quickly permeate the academic field, offering new ideas for the traditional scientific community.
First, Memecoin projects can leverage the advantages of decentralization and smart contracts to offer researchers a completely new reward mechanism. The publication of research results is no longer solely dependent on traditional academic journals or publishers, but can instead directly connect researchers with funders through blockchain. As an incentive tool, Memecoin can provide real-time financial support to researchers through community participation, helping them overcome funding bottlenecks and avoid the constraints of traditional academic funding institutions.
More importantly, Memecoin can enable the real-time recording and public sharing of research outcomes. Traditional academic publishing has long delays, and many important discoveries or data can be postponed or lost. With Memecoin’s decentralized mechanism, research data and results can be transparently shared, facilitating collaboration between researchers and allowing global research resources to be efficiently utilized. Memecoin, as a token with “network effects,” also accelerates the dissemination of scientific results within the research community, significantly boosting collaboration, especially in interdisciplinary and cutting-edge fields.
Additionally, Memecoin can address the issue of authors’ rights. In traditional research, authors often do not have clear control over the copyrights and profit rights of their work. During the citation and distribution of papers, authors often do not benefit directly. Under the Memecoin model, researchers can use smart contracts to ensure their work is fully protected and rewarded. With each research result published, the smart contract automatically distributes token rewards, reducing intermediaries and complex processes, making the commercialization of scientific outcomes more direct and transparent.
Looking ahead, as technology continues to develop, Memecoin could integrate with cutting-edge fields like AI and quantum computing, further pushing the boundaries of scientific research. Perhaps this is the moment when the initially “absurd” ideas of the Meme sector find their true value in actual scientific innovation.
This revolution may have only just begun.
